AMID strong resentment brewing among some Congress legislators in Jharkhand over the induction of four party MLAs in the Cabinet of Chief Minister ChampaiSoren, eight of the12 disgruntled MLAs reached Delhi on Saturday evening. “WehavereachedDelhi.Rest will be reaching tomorrow... We will hold discussions with theCongressleadershiphere... We want replacemen to fall the four...The 12MLAs are together barring the four ministers and MLA Pradeep Yadav,” Congress legislator Kumar Jaimangal,also known as Anup Singh, told PTI.

 

The Bermo legislator said the Congress has 17 MLAs and the JMM 29. “The JMM has already taken the Chief Minister and the Speaker’s posts. They have six ministerialberthsandwewant the remaining one. We are not compromising on that,” Jaimangal demanded. Unhappy with the Congress’ decision to again give ministerial berths to Alamgir Alam, Rameshwar Oraon, Banna Guptaand Badal Patralekh,the legislators went into a huddle at a Ranchi hotel earlier in the day,where JMM’s new Minister Basant Soren,the youngestson ofparty supremo Shibu Soren, reached to persuade them to change their decision. “There is no confusion...We are all united,” Basant Soren claimed after meeting the MLAs. Champai Soren and State Congress president Rajesh Thakur have also reached Delhi and are scheduled to meet AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge. As many as 12 MLAs of the grand old party have threatened to boycott the upcoming state assembly session from February 23 iftheMinistersare not replaced with new faces. The JMM-led alliance in the state has 47 MLAs (JMM-29, Congress-17 and one RJD) in the 81-member assembly.